Racial Science & Human Diversity in Colonial Indonesia (Paperback)

Fenneke Sysling

ISBN 10: 9814722073 / ISBN 13: 9789814722070

Edité par NUS Press, Singapore, 2016

Paperback. Indonesia is home to diverse peoples who differ from one another in terms of physical appearance as well as social and cultural practices. The way such matters are understood is partly rooted in ideas developed by racial scientists working in the Netherlands Indies beginning in the late nineteenth century, who tried to develop systematic ways to define and identify distinctive races. Their work helped spread the idea that race had a scientific basis in anthropometry and craniology, and was central to peoples identity, but their encounters in the archipelago also challenged their ideas about race.In The Archipelago of Difference, Fenneke Sysling draws on published works and private papers to describe to way Dutch racial scientists tried to make sense of the human diversity in the Indonesian archipelago. The making of racial knowledge, it contends, cannot be explained solely in terms of internal European intellectual developments but it was on the ground, that ideas about race weremade and unmade with a set of knowledge strategies that did not always combine well. Sysling describes how skulls were assembled through the colonial infrastructure, how measuring sessions were resisted, what role photography and plaster casting played in racial science and shows how these aspects of science in practice wereentangled with the Dutch colonial Empire. Draws on published works and private papers to describe to way Dutch racial scientists tried to make sense of the human diversity in the Indonesian archipelago. The making of racial knowledge, it contends, cannot be explained solely in terms of internal European intellectual developments but it was on the ground, that ideas about race were made and unmade. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability. N° de réf. du vendeur 9789814722070

Synopsis :

Indonesia is home to diverse peoples who differ from one another in terms of physical appearance as well as social and cultural practices. The way such matters are understood is partly rooted in ideas developed by racial scientists working in the Netherlands Indies beginning in the late nineteenth century, who tried to develop systematic ways to define and identify distinctive races. Their work helped spread the idea that race had a scientific basis in anthropometry and craniology, and was central to people's identity, but their encounters in the archipelago also challenged their ideas about race.

In this new monograph, Fenneke Sysling draws on published works and private papers to describe the way Dutch racial scientists tried to make sense of the human diversity in the Indonesian archipelago. The making of racial knowledge, it contends, cannot be explained solely in terms of internal European intellectual developments. It was 'on the ground' that ideas about race were made and unmade with a set of knowledge strategies that did not always combine well. Sysling describes how skulls were assembled through the colonial infrastructure, how measuring sessions were resisted, what role photography and plaster casting played in racial science and shows how these aspects of science in practice were entangled with the Dutch colonial Empire.

À propos de l'auteur: Dr. Fenneke Sysling is a historian of science and colonialism. She holds a PhD from the VU University of Amsterdam, Netherlands and has publishedon the history of museum collections, environmental history and the making of race. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands.

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : Racial Science & Human Diversity in Colonial...
Éditeur : NUS Press, Singapore
Date d'édition : 2016
Reliure : Paperback
Etat : new